Though he appears
often in the New Testament, John the Baptist is still a man of mystery. We
see him through the lens of the early Christians with only a hint that the
Baptist’s disciples would argue that he was superior to Jesus. But the
Baptist’s followers were lost in the waves of history, so we know very
little about them or about him, save what the Gospels. Were they really
relatives? The question is not relevant. Jesus did seek out John’s baptism,
though such ceremonies of renewal were common in the Second Temple era.
John, we should be confident, was contemporary of Jesus whose life and work
reflected the need of that time for a new era. John’s plea for metanoia –
change and renewal – anticipated Jesus. But John did not claim as Jesus did
that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

Once upon a time, there was this parish director of music, a young woman
just out of musical school. She found a children’s choir which everyone
loved, an adult choir which no one liked because they sang too long, a scola
cantorum which sang Gregorian chant, which some people liked a lot, and a
teenage choir that “jammed for Jesus,” which the young people liked totally,
and they were by their own admission the only ones that counted. She was
also going on for her master’s degree and had a boy friend, who was a
baseball pitcher without a future because he played for the Cubs. The pastor
was delighted with the young woman’s talent and work ethic. After her first
year he recommended to the financial council that she receive a fifty
percent raise because, as he said, “She works harder than any priest I
know.” We’re not considering a raise, they said. She’s only a kid. Let’s not
give her a raise till she asks for one. If we do pay her more, she’ll be
back in two years for more. More likely she will be out of here, said the
pastor. This is a case of commutative justice said the pastor, who was kind
of old and remembered these words from his social ethics courses. They still
said no. He gave her the raise. Finance committee complained to the bishop
who said that if she didn’t get a raise he’d hire her for the Cathedral.
That was that.